Sewing gifts: denim whales

I haven’t had a great deal of free time for sewing recently, – and the time I’ve had has been spent making Christmas presents. Most of these I won’t be able to blog about until the New Year as it might spoil the surprise somewhat. My nature loving nephew, however, isn’t yet browsing the web, so I think I’m on fairly save ground sharing his gift – a blue whale set made from denim left over from the day dress I made earlier in the year.

The simplicity of this whale, the use of both sides of the fabric to create two-tone contrast and the pin tuck details are a stroke of genius. The genius is definitely not mine though, as I used the idea and free tutorial created by Mevrouw at Valaan Villapaita to make the whale. The tutorial doesn’t include a pattern but has clear photos of the pieces used – Mevrouw draws her pieces out freehand each time so every whale is unique. I really like the idea that they all come out a bit different but if you weren’t confident at drawing or had no experience of pattern cutting it might be a little intimidating. My whale duly turned out a little different from the original – and a little lumpy – probably because the denim I was using was quite lightweight. I also used shop bought soft toy eyes instead of embroidery and added thick fusible interfacing to the fins and the tail. I do like the result though – and I’m fairly confident my nephew will too.

Toys are more fun when they can interact with other toys and despite what John Lewis is trying to tell me this Christmas, most small children I know have almost zero interest in the romantic love life of their toys, so I decided to make another small/baby whale to go with the big/mother/father whale rather than a boyfriend/girlfriend.

This time I changed the pattern pieces slightly so that the tail attached to the body seamlessly.

The difference is most obvious on the underside (ignore the not very neat hand finishing!)

One present down – a fair few more to go…